Short description:

A practical guide for police, death investigators, and prosecutors, No-Body Homicide Cases: A Practical Guide to Investigating, Prosecuting, and Winning Cases When the Victim is Missing, Second Edition takes an expansive look at both the history of no-body murder cases and the best methods to investigate, solve, and bring them to court.

Long description:

A practical guide for police, death investigators, and prosecutors, No-Body Homicide Cases: A Practical Guide to Investigating, Prosecuting, and Winning Cases When the Victim is Missing, Second Edition takes an expansive look at both the history of no-body murder cases and the best methods to investigate, solve, and bring them to court.

How do you prove someone guilty of murder when the best and primary piece of evidence?the victim?s body?is missing? Exclusively dedicated to the investigation and prosecution of no-body homicide cases, this fully updated Second Edition provides the author?s insight gained from investigating, consulting on, and trying scores of no-body cases throughout the United States. Taking readers step-by-step from the first days of a homicide investigation through the trial, the book explores the history of confessions and discloses the investigative techniques police must use to catch these cunning killers. Chapters review methods criminals have used to dispose of bodies, delving into the psychological profile of the type of defendant who murders someone, then hides the body. Since the last edition published, the number of no-body murder cases investigated has skyrocketed, with more than 50 percent of all no-body murder cases tried and prosecuted have occurred since the year 2000.

New to this edition is a chapter on a full, singular high-profile case from start to finish, to illustrate the entire no-body investigative and adjudication process. A sample arrest warrant for a no-body murder case is provided in addition to Chapter 12 updating the prior edition?s nearly 400 case summaries provided to the current figure, as of this publication, of 576 no-body murder trials in U.S. history. No-Body Homicide Cases, Second Edition continues to serve as an essential resource and the "how-to" manual for investigating, prosecuting, and winning no-body murder cases.

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction  2. Background and Overview  3. The Early Investigative Phase  4. Investigation: Later Phase  5. Cold Case  6. Trial  7. No-Body Murder Case Statistics  8. Personality of a Murderer  9. Future  10. Common Features of a No-Body Murder Case  11. United States v. Harold Austin, A Case Study  12. Summary of All 576 No-Body Murder Trials in the United States Since the 1800s   App A. No-Body Homicide Investigative Checklist   App B. Key Word Index  App C. State by State Cases  App. D Model Arrest Warrant for No-Body Murder Case